Families First Coronavirus Relief Act Leave Benefits Expanded and Extended, But Participation is Optional

In early 2020, Congress created a major new leave program under the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA) giving employees access to up to 12 weeks of paid medical and/or family leave for reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic (“FFCRA leave”). Employers with under 500 employees were required to provide and pay for these benefits through the end of 2020; on the plus side, employers were eligible to claim a “dollar-for-dollar” tax credit from the IRS to recoup the costs of providing FFCRA leave.

At the beginning of 2021, FFCRA leave continued to exist but became a voluntary program. Employers who wanted to continue providing FFCRA benefits could choose to do so, and the IRS continued to provide tax credits to compensate participating employers.

In March 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) extended the voluntary FFRCA program through September 2021 and significantly expanded the scope of FFCRA benefits. Tax credits continue to be available to employers who choose to participate. The current FFCRA leave program became effective April 1, 2021.

Nine Qualified Reasons for FFCRA Leave, Including Three New Sick Leave Reasons

Under the original law, employees could take FFCRA medical leave for the following reasons:
1. The employee is under a Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19;
2. The employee has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19; or
3. The employee is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking a medical diagnosis.

Additionally, employees were eligible to take FFCRA family leave for the following reasons:
4. The employee is caring for another individual subject to an order described above in (1) or self-quarantined as described in (2);
5. The employee is caring for a child whose school or place of care is closed (or childcare provider is unavailable) for reasons related to COVID-19; or
6. The employee is experiencing any other substantially similar condition as specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Under the ARP, employees can now take FFCRA sick leave for the following three additional reasons:
7. To attend a COVID-19 vaccination appointment;
8. To recover from injuries, disabilities, illnesses, or conditions related to receiving a COVID-19 vaccination; and/or,
9. To seek a COVID-19 test or diagnosis, including the waiting period for the results of such a test, if the employer requested the test or the employee was exposed to COVID-19.

FFCRA Extended Family Leave Now Available for All Qualifying Events, Expanded to 12 Weeks

The original law provided up to two weeks of paid leave for any combination of the qualified events listed above, except that individuals were granted up to 10 additional weeks of extended family leave to care for out-of-school/out-of-care children under qualifying reason (5).

Per the ARP, employers can now offer up to 12 weeks of extended FFCRA family leave for any of the nine qualifying reasons listed above, significantly expanding the scope of available benefits. Employees taking expanded FFCRA family leave are entitled to up to two-thirds their regular rate of pay, capped at $200 per day ($12,000 over the full 12-week benefit period).

FFCRA Sick Leave Bank Reset on April 1

In addition to the expanded FFCRA family leave benefits, employees continue to be eligible for an additional two weeks (80 hours) of FFCRA sick leave for qualifying reasons 1-3 and 7-9, above. FFCRA sick leave is compensated at a higher rate than family leave (100% of the employee’s regular rate of pay, up to $511 per day). Finally, ARP reset the FFCRA sick leave bank for all covered employees to the full 80 hours starting April 1, 2021.

In summary, the current version of FFCRA allows employers to provide robust COVID-related sick and family leave benefits that can ultimately be reimbursed by the federal government.